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PROGRAM D-8010
What is your one word for 2018? I’ve been urging you to take the challenge of choosing one word as your focus for the new year—one word you pray into your life and, by God’s grace, you make it more of a reality in your life than ever before. I’ve given some examples of what that one word might be—words like wisdom, pause, integrity, and purity. Let me share my one word for 2018.
It is gentleness. I am not by nature a gentle person. I tend to be very direct and unsympathetic toward others who are different from me. I want 2018 to be a year where I live every day remembering to be gentle: gentle in the words I choose; gentle in my attitudes toward others; gentle in my actions and even in my body language!
Philippians 4:5 is my verse for the year: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” It’s listed in Galatians 5 as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Furthermore, in Colossians 5 we are admonished to clothe ourselves with gentleness—to put on gentleness. So, that’s my one word for 2018.
Now, putting it out there is a bit risky, isn’t it? It means I can and should be held accountable to being gentle. So, I encourage you not only to choose your one word, but to let others know what it is. I print my one word, along with the verse that I’ve chosen, in large letters. Then I make several copies, laminate them, and put them around me where I can see them often.
As I suggested earlier, a good idea is to keep a journal focused on your one word. You’ll be surprised how often, as you read your Bible, your one word will jump off the page and remind you to keep that word in your mind. Putting it in writing is such a good way to remember what God has shown you, and what has inspired and encouraged you.
I’d love to hear what you have chosen as your one word for 2018. You can communicate with us through our website, or by emailing at tcww@christianworkingwoman.org, and it will get to me personally.